Some aspects of local fuel processing

Abstract

Fuel peat plays an important part in meeting heat supply requirements of people and municipal–domestic facilities in the Republic of Belarus. Generalized long-term studies show that peat produced recently has an increased humidity and a decreased density. The energy efficiency of briquetting in case of steam tube drying is the most tightly connected with the product humidity. The actual energy consumption grows with the increasing final humidity. Efficiency of the resource- and energy-saving methods and activities aimed at reduction of energy consumption in production of solid domestic fuel is evaluated. The influence of the physical and mechanical properties of milled peat on the performance of peat briquetting plants is determined. The variants of the humidity / ash blending of primary products are proposed, with addition of import lignite during drying, towards improvement of quality of briquettes and reduction of raw-materials consumption. The calculation procedure of specific raw-material consumption per unit product is developed for the flue-gas and steam tube driers with a view to reducing specific energy consumption. The balance sheet of materials is calculated for the two types of the driers, and the factors which enable reduction in raw-materials consumption are identified. The mathematical relations are obtained to find the influence exerted by the physical and mechanical properties (humidity, ash content) of the raw material on the quality of briquettes (calorific efficiency) and on the peat briquetting plant performance (specific raw-material consumption). It is found that the ash content of peat grows as peat milling advances and thickness of the mill layer decreases. The influence of the raw material humidity on its consumption is determined as it is closely connected with the parameters of hot drying of peat.